I recently completed an online six-week course with the Esoteric Yoga Stillness Program for Women. The effects of the program, and what I have discovered, have been life changing. Esoteric Yoga has supported me to connect deeper to my body and take the time to listen to its constant communications. This beautiful practice has also allowed me to feel the fact that I have an essence – a feeling within that is truly and deeply precious, beautiful, untouched and unscathed by anything that has occurred in my life – an essence that is always there no matter what.

What I have discovered is, that no matter what happens in life, there is a warmth and steadiness deep within – an anchor that can be connected to and keeps me grounded in the sea of energy we all live in. Life is not always smooth sailing, and sometimes the waves that come our way can rattle us and really shake us up… situations or outcomes occur we never expected. But deep within is an essence, a quality of stillness – that when connected to, supports us to hold steady amongst the waves of daily life so we are not swept up or owned by emotional spirals or negative thoughts and feelings.

For example, in the past I’d be watching the clock, and go off into my mind panicking about the ‘short time’ and the ‘long to do list’, and end up feeling all muddled. I would have no awareness of that warmth within me and no awareness of how delicate my body is and can be.

Since participating in the Esoteric Yoga program I have realised that all I need is to connect back with my body, feel the quality of my essence and move from there. From here I feel stable, less wobbly, less pressured and there is a flow to my day that is natural and not strained.

The Esoteric Yoga program has highlighted for me the power of bringing awareness to the way in which I move. For example in a tense situation at work as a waitress I can briskly speed-walk to complete all the tasks I’ve deemed need doing as soon as possible (each one feeling pressured and urgent). Walking in this way, I feel rushed and pushed – I don’t enjoy connecting with my colleagues and I am left stressed, exhausted and with sore feet after my shift!

If I bring awareness to my body and movements, I’ve found that I can walk with speed but not pound the floor as I go about my tasks… I can still walk fast but not in a rushed, hurried or stressful way. As a result, I am actually left feeling lighter in myself from my work. This is amazing as it is showing me that no outside situation determines how I feel about life or within myself, it is through how I move with my body that makes all the difference.

Two women I have been hugely inspired by are Natalie Benhayon and Simone Benhayon. Observing these women, as well as many others now living from their essence – that is, living life from how they feel inside to respond to what is around them in everyday life – has continued to support me to commit to living in relationship with my own inner-anchor of stillness. This is a way of living where this relationship with who I am comes first and foremost, where I am not beholden to endless ‘box ticking’ and constant expectations of who and how I should be.

I’ve realised that when I am ticking others’ boxes, my body moves to someone else’s beat, and that this in fact leads to many stresses and ills I may then experience and feel in my body as a consequence.

From living a life constantly choosing to believe that I was lesser than the true beauty of the woman I am, my self-worth and self-appreciation are today beginning to blossom – allowing a beautiful, delicate inner strength to come out.

The Esoteric Yoga Stillness Program for Women has supported me to feel, through a deepening connection with my own body, that I have access to an innate wisdom, bringing greater awareness and understanding of myself and the world around me. I have come to learn and realise that the way in which I move my body can bring great care or harm to myself and others in my life. These programs have been inspiring and very simple to then take that quality of care into my week, very practically in my everyday life. The more I access this wisdom – founded in my relationship with my body – the more stable I feel in life as I know who, what and where I am. I know and am in touch with the essence that is ‘me’. By knowing myself from my essence first and foremost I can say I absolutely love life as there is no trying to be something or seek my identity, I am already everything and the Esoteric Yoga has supported me in this rediscovery.